@nasa

It’s Mercury on the dance floor, but you better not kill the groove! 🪩⁣ ⁣ Donned in colorful shades, data from the MESSENGER mission is modeled to shed light on how certain types of comets influence the tiny space rocks, or micrometeoroids, that impact our smallest planetary neighbor, Mercury.⁣ ⁣ According to experts at @NASAGoddard, simulations from variations in meteoroid impacts reveal surprising patterns in the time of day that impacts occur: mornings. Noting a higher presence of magnesium and calcium in the exosphere indicated that meteoroid impacts are more frequent on whatever part of the planet is experiencing dawn at the given time. Impact speed was then considered - meteoroids from asteroids wouldn’t be moving fast enough to create the observed impacts. Eventually, it was narrowed to meteoroids from two certain types of comets – Jupiter-family and Halley-Type – that had the speed necessary to match the observations.⁣ ⁣ Learn more about missions happening within our solar system at @NASASolarSystem.⁣ ⁣ Image description: A mosaic made up of four views of Mercury using data from the Mercury Atmosphere and Surface Composition Spectrometer or MASCS, instrument is overlaid on data from the Mercury Dual Imaging System, or MDIS. Four circular faces of the planet are laid out in on a black square background. Each orb is a multicolored circle dappled in pinks, purples, turquoise, yellow and peach.⁣ ⁣ Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington⁣ ⁣ #NASA #Space #SolarSystem #Mercury #Planets #Color #Meteor #Comets #SpaceRocks

January 28, 2024